Things that don’t work in Vista 64bit edition

  • Any native Vista x64 applications, because basically they don’t exist (about every app I use has to run in 32bit compatibility mode)
  • Winamp
  • Java applets (java installs but most of the time just doesn’t work)
  • Cisco webconferences (requires java)
  • Azereus (needs Java to work)
  • Exact drivers for my recent model HP Laser Printer (but found some for a similarly numbered model that do)
  • My glowing silver knob doesn’t work
  • Drivers for my strange model of Soundblaster card (but motherboard sound chip does with only lightly hacked XP drivers)
  • 2 webcams, neither working (but I haven’t tried very hard, webcams are overrated)
  • The mute button on my USD headset microphone
  • Dragon Naturally speaking (supports 32Bit Vista only. sob, my poor fingers)
  • iTunes with audioscrobler (no more music updates for my blog sidebar or my last.fm page)
  • Winamp
  • Microsoft Voice recognition in skype chat, msn messenger(?!), any firefox window, or basically any app other than IE, notepad or MS Office.
  • Vista logos on almost any of my commonly installed applications are not to be found. It’s mostly a download the XP software version, and pray, sort of thing.

Which is all so understandable from a software or device provider’s perspective considering how Vista came along so quickly, so far ahead of schedule, without advance warning, or notable publicity for that matter. On top of which 64bit x86 processors were just sprung upon the unsuspecting market only 4 years ago etc. etc….

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The Language of Omaha

Warren Buffet’s annual letter is up on the internet. As usual it is a joy to read. Don’t you wish everyone in business could speak so plainly? Okay, On the one, hand I do suppose that anyone who made their shareholders 16.9B last year (yes, that’s with a ‘B’) would have the prerogative to talk anyway they like, and the ‘homelyness’ of Buffet’s style surely well practiced. On the other hand though, I think it may simply/also require an extraordinarily rare degree of competence in everything you do to be able to speak about it so clearly. Judge for yourself.

Speaking of clearly speaking Omahanians, if you never have, you must read Charlie Munger’s famous speech. Charlie Munger is Buffet’s longtime partner at Berkshire Hathaway. This little (okay not so little) speech, ostensibly about stock picking, is rather perhaps the single best -and most complete- treatise on business that you’ll ever read.

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Two Thirds of You are Reading this by RSS

Finally having gotten around to setting up feedburner I now have some idea how people are reading my site. Comparing the feedburner tracking with google analytics of average daily unique web visitors reveals the following:

Tom Purves web stats

The results surprised me. RSS readers outnumbering webvisitors by almost two thirds. How’s that for social proof? subscribe to my blog today! 😉


http://feeds.feedburner.com/thomaspurves

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